Search Integration

ABSTRACT

Search integration is described. The actions include receiving, by one or more processors, a query. The actions include identifying search results that are responsive to the query. The actions include identifying, based on the query and the search results, structured data to supplement the search results, wherein the structured data is generated from binary table data that is received and deserialized by one or more processing modules. The actions include processing the structured data and the search results. The actions include providing, for output, the processed search results and the processed structured data results.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/606,178, filed Jan. 27, 2015, which claims the benefit of U.S. Application No. 61/931,970, filed Jan. 27, 2014 and U.S. Application No. 62/021,625, filed Jul. 7, 2014, the contents of all of these prior applications are incorporated by reference.

FIELD

This description relates to search engine integration.

BACKGROUND

Computer systems are used to manage and store data in a structure known as a database. As such, computers can be used to analyze data and generate reports based on the analysis results. For instance, computer systems can filter data and calculate metric values based on the filtered data, ultimately providing a report including the calculated metric values. A database is an organized repository of data. There are various ways in which the data can be organized. Schemas are used to describe the different organizations of data.

Computers systems have two types of physical data storage-disk (e.g., hard drive) storage and Random Access Memory (RAM) storage. Typically, computer systems have more disk storage than RAM, but it can often take longer (e.g., in the range of 100-1,000 times longer) to read data from the disk than from RAM. This can result in noticeable performance degradation.

SUMMARY

In general, one innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving, by one or more processors, a query; identifying search results that are responsive to the query; identifying, based on the query and the search results, structured data to supplement the search results, where the structured data is generated from binary table data that is received and deserialized by one or more processing modules; processing the structured data and the search results; and providing, for output, the processed search results and the processed structured data results.

These and other embodiments can each optionally include one or more of the following features. The one or more processing modules includes a listening module, a receiving module, a decompress module, or a deserialize module. The query is a natural language query. The query is received through a dashboard application. The action of processing the structured data and the search results includes performing analytics, filtering, aggregation, wrangling, searching, data mining, text analytics, on demand loading, incremental refreshing, streaming, data blending, complex ETL workflows, or multi-sourcing. The action of providing, for output, the processed search results and the processed structured data results includes providing, for output and to an in-memory engine, the processed search results and the processed structured data results. The action of processing the structured data and the search results includes identifying a portion of the processing to be performed by an in-memory engine; and providing, to the in-memory engine, the search results and the structured data results. The action of identifying search results that are responsive to the query includes identifying, using a search index, search results that are responsive to the query. The structured data includes a global queue generated from the binary table data that is received and deserialized by the one or more processing modules.

Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs recorded on computer storage devices, each configured to perform the operations of the methods.

The details of one or more embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example user interface for browsing search index metadata.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example user interface of a graphical query builder for search.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example user interface of a graphical query builder for search.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example user interface for search with a search selector for multiple attributes.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process for integrating structured data and unstructured data in providing query results.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example architecture of an in-memory analytic data store.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example architecture of a node.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example system with multiple nodes.

FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate example user interfaces of an intelligence dashboard.

FIGS. 11 and 12 are block diagrams illustrating example topologies for applications leveraging an in-memory, distributed, analytic data store.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example data streaming architecture.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example process for data streaming.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques are described for a system that is configured to connect and interact with a servlet embedded in a web server in a manner that promotes faster data retrieval and searching. The system provides dynamic search query generation, incremental results retrieval, and a search box that is not specific to any attribute.

In some implementations, the system is configured to treat search as a data source. In these implementations, the system may perform natural language processing grid/report creation, may extend metadata object search to report caches, and may perform attribute element searches using search selectors across multiple attributes. Further, in these implementations, the system may use search as the analytic paradigm for unstructured and semi-structured data. The unstructured data searched may include free text, posts and comments, etc., and the semi-structured data may include event log data, strings of key-value pairs, and any attributes (e.g., keys) that are not fully known prior to the time of analysis.

The system also may search some structured data. The structured data may include numerous, but sparse, characteristic attributes, BigTable-like structures, etc. A relational database is to structured data as a search Index in the system is to unstructured and semi-structured data. The system may use a search server (e.g., SoIr) as a “database” that speaks search, instead of a structured query language (SQL).

In some examples, a database server may integrate with a search server (e.g., SoIr). In these examples, the database server may perform web services in which the database server sends prompted queries to the search server (e.g., SoIr) and retrieves results. The database server handles request submissions and results manipulation, and no authentication is necessary.

For example, an error tracking and management system database (e.g., Total Quality Management System) may be indexed via a search server (e.g., SoIr). In this example, a mix of structured fields (status, event, etc.) and unstructured fields (short description, long description, case comments, etc.) exists. And, in this example, the indexed error tracking and management system database may provide an issue count dashboard that show a number of issues over time relevant to “derived elements.” The indexed error tracking and management system database also may populate a result set via search and perform further subsetting in attribute elements by getting the set of issues relevant to “derived elements” and analyzing from there. The indexed error tracking and management system database further may perform search-as-filter by combining results from search over unstructured data with SQL queries over structured data. In this regard, the indexed error tracking and management system database may display maintenance revenue by year for all customers who logged issues relevant to “derived elements.”

In some implementations, a system implements search as a data source using a search server connector (e.g., a SoIr connector) with a freeform search expression. In these implementations, the system defines a search server (e.g., a SoIr server) as a database instance. The system browses metadata by reading a search server schema file (e.g., a SoIr schema file) and the user enters only the search server uniform resource identifier (URI) (e.g., a SoIr URI) in the freeform text. The search server connector (e.g., the SoIr connector) calls an application programming interface (API) based on information in the database instance. The search server connector (e.g., the SoIr connector) transforms results to a table format used by the system.

In some examples, the system may provide dynamic search query generation using a query builder for search. In these examples, the system operates as described above, but uses a graphical interface instead of a freeform URI.

The system also may perform incremental results retrieval. Instead of retrieving a full data set and displaying results, the search results may naturally return a preset number of rows at a time. The system further may use a text value selector in which a search box on a dashboard results in a new search API call to source. In the following disclosure, FIGS. 6-12 and the associated descriptions related to search integration technology that may be used to integrate structured data and unstructured data. Thereafter, search integration features that may be implemented using the systems described with reference to FIGS. 6-12 are discussed in more detail with reference to FIGS. 1-5, 13, and 14.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example user interface 2 for browsing search index metadata. The user interface 2 may be output by the search system described above. As shown in the “Select a database connection” section, each search server (e.g., SoIr server) may be modeled as a database instance. Also, a user enters a search query as a freeform string. As shown in the “Available tables:” section, each core (e.g., search index) appears with a list of available fields from the index. This information is retrieved from the search server schema file (e.g., SoIr schema file) and presented.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example user interface 4 of a graphical query builder for search. The user interface 4 may be output by the search system described above. The user interface 4 shows a dynamically-generated search string that is automatically generated based on the text entered in the text input control, the return fields entered in the return fields input control, the count check box, and the stats field. The return fields input control defines facets or fields to be returned by the search. The stats field is a field on which to calculate Sum, Min, Max, etc. If the stats field is left empty, no stats are computed. As shown, the dynamically-generated search string was generated based on the text “video” entered in the text input control and the fields “name” and “price” entered in the return fields input control.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example user interface of a graphical query builder for search. The user interface 6 may be output by the search system described above. The user interface 6 shows a dynamically-generated search string that is automatically generated based on the text entered in the text input control, the return fields entered in the return fields input control, the count check box, and the stats field. The return fields input control defines facets or fields to be returned by the search. The stats field is a field on which to calculate Sum, Min, Max, etc. If the stats field is left empty, no stats are computed. As shown, the dynamically-generated search string was generated based on no text entered in the text input control, the field “inStock” entered in the return fields input control, the check of the count check box, and the field “Price” entered in the stats field input control.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example user interface 8 for search with a search selector for multiple attributes. The user interface 8 may be output by the search system described above. The user interface 8 includes a search box that is not specific to any attribute. When search terms are entered in the search box, the system parses the search terms into multiple unit conditions, each of which is an attribute element list qualification, and performs a search based on the parsing.

In some implementations, the system performs natural language processing report or grid creation. In these implementations, the system may receive user input, such as “northeast sales for 2012 by month.” The system then generates queries based on natural language processing of the received user input. For instance, for the user input “northeast sales for 2012 by month,” the system generates a Template: Month attribute on rows, Sales metric on columns, and a Filter: Region IN {Northeast} AND Year IN {2012}.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process for integrating structured data and unstructured data in providing query results. In general, the process is performed by a computing device, for example, a computer system. The system integrates structured data (e.g., tables in a relational database) and unstructured data (e.g., files indexed by a search index) to identify results to a query.

The system receives a query (10). In some implementations, the query is a natural language query received through a dashboard application. For example, the query may be “identify servers with a buffer overflow error and the impact that error had on each organization.” As another example, the query may be “identify customers who included ‘not recommend’ in their comments.”

The system identifies search results that are responsive to the query (20). In some implementations, the system identifies the search results in unstructured or semi-structured search data using a search index. For example, a crawler may have indexed server log files as unstructured or semi-structured search data, and the system identifies, using the search index, the log files that contain the buffer overflow error. As another example, a crawler may have indexed web pages that contain comments left by users of a shopping website unstructured or semi-structured search data, and the system may identify the comments that include “not recommend.” Any type of unstructured or semi-structured search data may be searched in satisfying the query.

The system identifies, based on the query and the search results, structured data to supplement the search results (30). For instance, the system supplements the search of the unstructured or semi-structured search data with structured data, such as data from a relational database. For example, to determine the impact of a server error on different organizations, the system identifies structured data that includes a table that maps each server to a particular organization within a company. In this example, through the integration of searching unstructured data and structured data, the system provides search results that indicate the impact of server errors on particular organizations, which is information that is only available through a combination of unstructured and structured data. As another example, the structured data may include a customer database that includes demographic data for each customer who has purchased an item from the shopping website. In this example, the demographic data is added to the results from a search of the unstructured to provide fuller results with more information.

The system processes the structured data and the search results (40). For example, the system may identify the username that is associated with each comment and examine the customer database to determine demographic data of the customers who included “not recommend” in their comment. As another example, the system may identify the organization that was affected by the server error. The system may further identify computer use data for each employee in the organization. The system may compare the employee computer use data for days when the server error occurred to employee computer use data for days when the server error did not occur. In some implementations, the system may perform analytics, filtering, aggregation, wrangling, searching, data mining, text analytics, on demand loading, incremental refreshing, streaming, data blending, complex ETL workflows, or multi-sourcing on the structured data and the search results.

The system provides, for output, the processed search results and the processed structured data results (50). In some implementations, the system provides the processed search results and the processed structured data results to an in-memory engine. The system may request additional processing of the processed search results and the processed structured data results by the in-memory engine. In some implementations, the system provides the processed search results and the processed structured data results to the dashboard application. The system may provide a graphical representation of the processed search results and the processed structured data results such as bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts.

FIG. 6 shows an example conceptual diagram of a computer system described as performing the process shown in FIG. 5. For example, computer system 100 can be implemented on one or more computers (or nodes). As shown, computer system 100 can be conceptually represented as having two data storage areas, a hard disk 104 and a memory 108. The computer system 100 includes a dashboard application 130. Dashboard application 130 can include an interface (as described in detail below) for displaying grids and graphs based on underlying data to a user.

For example, memory 108 can be a random access memory or a flash memory. In some implementations, memory 108 allows data items to be read and written in a substantially similar amount of time regardless of an order in which the data items are access. In this regard, memory 108 can be different from, for example, hard disk 104 where the time to read and write data items can vary significant depending on the physical locations of the data items in the recording medium and because of, e.g., mechanical limitations such as media rotation speeds and arm movement delays.

Memory 108 includes an in-memory data store 112. For example, the in-memory data store can be partitioned into one or more data sub sets 116 a-c. For example, one or more data sub sets 116 a-c can include partitions (e.g. a portion) of one or more tables within data store 112. Although three data sub sets 116 a-c are shown and described here, there can be fewer or more (perhaps several more) than the three data sub sets 116 a-c. Each data sub set 116 a-c is associated with one or more processing units 120 a-c. Although three processing units 120 a-c are shown and described here, there can be fewer or more (perhaps several more) than the three processing units 120 a-c. In some examples, a processing unit 120 a can be associated with more than one data sub set 116 a-c.

For example, processing units 120 a-c can be one or more processor cores of a multi-core processor. For examples, multi-core processors can have two cores (dual-core CPUs, for example AMD Phenom II X2 and Intel Core Duo), four cores (quad-core CPUs, for example AMD Phenom II X4, Intel's i5 and i7 processors), six cores (hexa-core CPUs, for example AMD Phenom II X6 and Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X), eight cores (octo-core CPUs, for example Intel Xeon E7-2820 and AMD FX-8350), ten cores (for example, Intel Xeon E7-2850), or more. In some implementations, a multi-core processor implements multiprocessing in a single physical package.

In some implementations, the computer system 100 can be implemented across multiple nodes. For example, a first processing unit 120 a can each be a processor core of a multi-core processor in a first node, and a second processing unit 120 b can be a processor core of a multi-core processor in a second, different, node. In some implementations, while processing unit 120 a is physically located in a first node (e.g. a first processor core in the first node), processing units 120 b and 120 c can be physically located in a second, different node (e.g. second, different processor cores in the second node). In some implementations, data sub set 116 a can be physically located in the first node, and data sub sets 116 b and 116 c, corresponding respectively to each of processing units 120 b and 120 c, can be physically located in the second, different node. Although a few example combinations of processor cores and partitioned data sets are described here, a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand that any number of combinations of processor cores and partitioned data sets, spread out over a single node or multiple nodes, are possible.

In some examples, one or more database transactions can be processed in the form of one or more queries 124 a-c to the in-memory analytic data store 112. For example, a high level database transaction can be divided into the multiple queries 124 a-c. In some examples, the number of queries 124 a-c can be as high as a number of parallel processing units 120 a-c that are available to process the queries 124 a-c in parallel. As shown, the queries 124 a-c can be processed in parallel by the respective processing units 120 a-c. For example, query 124 a may require the summation of a column of data (e.g., numbers) residing in a portion of the data sub set 116 a. For example, the column of data relates to sales made by a customer over a period of time. This summation operation can be handled by respective processing unit 120 a. Substantially at the same time, a different (but perhaps related) operation, .e.g. retrieving transaction dates for the sales fields being processed through the summation operation, can be handled by processing unit 120 b operating on data sub set 116 b. The results from respective queries 124 a and 124 b can be sent back to a query engine (see e.g. FIG. 3 described in further detail below) to assemble the information for, e.g., final display. In some implementations, the second simultaneous operation is typically the same as the first and a single logical operation is divided among multiple partitions. For example, the operation may be to sum a group of 100 numbers, but physically there are 5 operations, each of which sums a group of 20 of the 100 numbers. Therefore, each operation is a sum.

For example, computer systems implementing the techniques described herein (e.g. computer system 100 of FIG. 6) uses information about an application and/or design aspects of a dashboard application 130 to generate queries 124 a-c to the in-memory data store. For example, dashboard application 130 can include a dashboard interface, as described in detail below, in which two or more grids (e.g. tables of data) are based on same or similar content. In some implementations, the computer system 100 can cause a single combined query (e.g., only query 124 a) or parallel queries (e.g., queries 124 a-c) to be executed on the in-memory data store for the two or more grids. In some implementations, dashboard application 130 can have two visualizations representing, e.g. sales trends over time through both a line chart and a grid of data. In the computer system 100, the data needed for the two visualizations can be the same and so can be based on a either a single query or multiple parallel queries to in-memory analytic data store 112. In some examples, dashboard application 130 can include two visualizations (not shown) based on selecting key performance indicators (KPIs) from a same set of underlying data in in-memory data store 112. Because the underlying data involved is the same, the visualizations can be executed together—i.e. a single query or multiple parallel queries can be executed together. In some implementations, dashboard application 130 can include visualizations that are based on same or similar filtering criteria, and as such queries corresponding to these visualizations can be combined into a single query and/or executed together.

In some implementations, a data service engine 128 can receive data from multiple high volume data storage systems and load the received data into in-memory data store 112. In some examples, data service engine 128 can perform parallel data loading into data store 112 through parallel processes 128 a-c. For example, processes 128 a-c can load data from a corresponding data sources (not shown) into respective in-memory data store sub sets 116 a-c in parallel. In some implementations, the loaded data can be all of the market intelligence data needed to generate output for an end application, e.g., a dashboard/visualization engine as described in further detail below.

The in-memory analytic data store 112 can enable bigger data volume given its partitioned and parallel processing structure. For instance, current in-memory technologies are limited to two billion rows. By dividing datasets into partitions (e.g., data store sub sets 116 a-c), each partition or sub set 116 a-c can have up to two billion rows, which increases the overall data volume. The partitioning can be performed on a single node or over multiple nodes as described below. For single node partitioning, data partitions are distributed across multiple cores on a single machine and grids/views are processed in parallel across all cores on a single multi-processor node. For multiple node partitioning, data partitions are distributed within and across multiple nodes (e.g., machines) and queries processed in parallel within and across multiple nodes.

In some implementations, the in-memory analytic data store 112 can provide broader analytic functionality. For instance, current in-memory cubes do not support full filter and metric functionality. In current in-memory cubes, “single pass” queries can be executed on underlying data. As such, complex business questions, such as, returning regional sales for those customers that bought certain widgets worth more than a predetermined number, could not be run on the data. The in-memory analytic data store 112, however, extends to “multi-pass” analytics with multiple levels of aggregation and/or filtering. For example, computer system 100 can process metrics having conditions. In some examples, computer system 100 can also set qualification filters on the data.

In some implementations, the computer system of FIG. 6 can be implemented on a single node. Referring to FIG. 7, an example architecture of a single node 200 is shown. Node 200 can be a server implementing an in-memory analytic data store 280. Node 200 can include an application tier 215, a data management tier 220, and a data service engine 290. Application tier 215 includes an application programming interface (API) layer 230 and an intelligence dashboard/visualization engine 240. For example, API layer 230 includes specifications describing how components in data management tier 220 can interact with other components, e.g., one or more web services 250. For example, API layer 230 interfaces with web services 250 to receive data from one or more other applications (e.g., market intelligence data) and/or to provide collaborative functionality with the one or more other applications (e.g., receive user input from the one or more other applications and provide data to be output by the one or more other applications).

Dashboard/visualization engine 240 interacts with one or more of web applications, mobile applications, and documents 260 to receive user input and provide user output. For instance, dashboard/visualization engine 240 can generate a user interface 400 as shown in FIG. 9. For example, dashboard/visualization engine 240 can interact with a web or mobile application to output the user interface 400 on a user's device, e.g. a handheld device. Dashboard/visualization engine 240 also can output user interface 400 as a document or file that a user device is able to store and display. Application tier 210 can be a tightly-coupled with globally optimized query execution across multiple visualizations in single dashboard. Application tier 210 can also include a “data-only” JSON REST API and can provide super-fast search-style selectors.

Data management tier 220 can include a query execution engine 270 and an in-memory data store 280. Query execution engine 270 receives queries (similar to queries 124 a-c described in connection with FIG. 6) from application tier 210 and processes the received queries on data stored in in-memory data store 280. Query execution engine 270 can access data from the in-memory data store 280, perform analytics on the accessed data, and provide, to the application tier 215, the accessed data and/or the results of the performed analytics. In some implementations, query execution engine 270 can divide a database transaction into a plurality of queries for processing on the respective data partitions.

In-memory data store 280 can be partitioned as shown. In some implementations, in-memory data store 280 can be partitioned to include, e.g., multiple partitioned tables 225 a-c and one or more shared tables 235 that are stored in-memory. In some implementations, while each of the partitioned tables 225 a-c is associated with a corresponding processor core, shared tables 235 can be accessed by multiple processor cores at substantially the same time. For example, the in-memory data store 280 can include a customer transactions table that can be partitioned such that each of the partitioned tables 225 a-c has one million customer transaction entries. In some implementations, a shared table can be a customer table that is shared among two or more processor cores.

Query execution engine 270 is configured to process queries to multiple partitioned tables 225 a-c and one or more shared tables 235 in parallel to provide fast data retrieval and enable a larger volume of data to be stored in-memory. For example, partition tables 225 a-c can include a plurality of customer transaction records. Data management tier 220 can be a high-performance in-memory data tier that performs distributed in-memory analytics on the customer transaction records.

As explained above, data management tier 220 can have data partitioned across multiple processing cores and can perform parallel execution of queries across all cores according to a partition logic. In some implementations, a partition attribute can be defined to couple the processing cores to the respective data partition table e.g., any one of partition tables 225 a-c. For example, if a partition table 225 a contains customer transaction information, a customer transaction attribute such as a transaction identification code (“ID”) can be used as a partition attribute. In this regard, in some examples, the transaction ID can be processed through a hash function and sent to partition tables 225 a-c to determine which partition 225 a-c has the corresponding transaction information. In some implementations, while multiple customers can be located in a partition table 225 a, a customer located on partition table 225 a can remain on that partition table 225 a indefinitely (e.g., until the customer record is reallocated elsewhere).

Data service engine 290 can receive data from multiple high volume data storage systems and load the received data into the in-memory data store 280 in the data management tier 220. The data service engine 290 can perform parallel data loading into the in-memory data store 280 from multiple data sources. The loaded data can be all of the market intelligence data accessible to generate output through the dashboard/visualization engine 240. For example, data service engine 290 loaded information can be based on one or more of information contained on files, the cloud, a relational database management system (RDMBS), information from Apache Hadoop (an open source software framework for large scale storage and processing of data), multidimensional expressions (MDX), search query results, stream, and sampling information.

In some implementations, any arbitrary schema can be loaded into the in-memory analytic data store. In some implementations, the in-memory analytic data store 280 can be loaded with multiple star schemas and not just a single star schema. A star schema organizes a database such that business process data is separated into facts, which hold measurable, quantitative data about a business, and dimensions which are descriptive attributes related to the facts. For example, facts can include sales price, sale quantity, and time, distance, speed, and weight measurements. Related dimension attribute can include product models, product colors, product sizes, geographic locations, and salesperson names. In one star schema, the data is organize such that the fact table is typically located at the center of the star schema with the dimension table surrounding the fact table. Thus, multiple star schemas can each have a facts table at its center and a plurality of associated dimensional tables surrounding the facts tables.

In some implementations, fact tables at multiple levels can be loaded into the in-memory analytic data store. As an illustration, a first star schema can include sales transactions information, including customer information, transaction detail at a timestamp level, and store of purchase information. A second star schema can include store inventory information, such as products information, sales associates' information, and purchase information at a weekly inventory level. A third star schema can include corporate-level pricing data. Thus, each star schema represents data at a different level of granularity and detail. In some implementations, the in-memory analytic data store 280 can be loaded with all such star schemas.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example system 300 with multiple nodes 310, 320. The system 300 includes master nodes 310, further delineated as master nodes 310 a-c, and worker nodes 320, further delineated as worker nodes 320 a-d. Although FIG. 8 illustrates three master nodes 310 a-c and four worker nodes 320 a-d, the system 300 can include more (perhaps, many more) or fewer master nodes 310 a-c and worker nodes 320 a-d.

As shown, each of the master nodes 310 a-c includes an API layer 325, a dashboard and/or visualization engine 330, a query execution engine 335, and an administration engine 340. The API layer, dashboard/visualization engine 330, and query execution engine 335 can be similar to the API layer 230, the dashboard/visualization engine 240, and the query execution engine 270 described above with respect to FIG. 7, except with for query execution engine 270 operating over multiple, different worker nodes 320 a-d. Administration engine 340 handles administration functionality for the corresponding master node 310, including user security, multi-tenant administration, versioning, and process monitoring. Each of master nodes 310 a-c can be operated on a separate machine.

As shown, each of the worker nodes 320 a-d includes a corresponding in-memory analytic data store 345 a-d, each of which can be similar to the in-memory data store 280 described above with respect to FIG. 7. Each of worker nodes 320 a-d can perform load balancing and failover operations for its own in-memory analytic data store nodes and/or across all of the worker nodes 320. In this regard, in some implementations, a status of a node is monitored. If, for example, a node (or a core within the node) fails or the load on a node (or a core within the node) exceeds a predetermined maximum, its load is immediately redistributed across the remaining nodes (or cores). For example, if an abnormal condition state is detected with respect to one or more nodes (or cores in the nodes), a failover can be effected to another one of the plurality of nodes (or processor cores) to ensure continued operation.

Each of the worker nodes 320 a-d can receive data from multiple large volume data sources and load the received data in parallel as described above. For example, each worker node 320 a-d can be in communication with one or more corresponding data sources 355 a-d. Although FIG. 8 illustrates a one-to-one correspondence between worker nodes 320 a-d and data sources 355 a-d, it should be understood that any variation of relationships between the worker nodes 320-a-d and data sources 355 a-d is possible. For example, a single data source, e.g., data source 355 a (say, a Hadoop system), can provide data to all four worker nodes 320 a-d. The data sources 355 a-d can include high volume data storage systems. Accordingly, a data services engine (e.g. data service engine 290 of FIG. 7) can load data from the data sources 355 a-d in parallel into the in-memory data stores 345 a-d. In some implementations, the loaded data can be all of the market intelligence data needed to generate output through a dashboard/visualization engine.

In some implementations, the raw data from one or more information sources, e.g., a Hadoop system, can be processed before being loaded (e.g. via data service engine 290 of FIG. 7) to an in-memory analytic data store. An example implementation of an interface for such processing is described in U.S. provisional Application No. 61/932,099, filed Jan. 27, 2014.

The system 300 can be configured differently depending on the type of application and the amount of data needed to support the application. For instance, for a market intelligence application that uses 2.2 billion rows, the system 300 can have a memory footprint of 59 GB and can have a hardware configuration of a single server with 32 cores and 1 TB of RAM. For a social media application that uses 2.8 billion rows, the system 300 can have a memory footprint of 100 GB and can have a hardware configuration of a single server with 40 cores and 1 TB of RAM. For an e-commerce application that uses 3.8 billion rows, the system 300 can have a memory footprint of 500 GB and can have a hardware configuration of a single server with 80 cores and 1 TB of RAM. For a social media application that uses 80 billion rows, the system 300 can have a memory footprint of 5-6 TB and can have a hardware configuration of 100 worker nodes, each with 16 cores and 144 GB of RAM, which results in a total of 1600 cores and 14 TB of RAM.

The system 300 can be configured to support use case characteristics with data volume in the 100's of GB to 1 TB range. In these cases, the system 300 can provide fast response time, as all executions are against in-memory datasets and datasets and queries are partition-friendly. The system 300 can serve mostly external-facing applications, although some applications can be internal. The data volume that can be handled by system 300 may not be limited to a particular size, such as 1 TB. In fact, depending on the available nodes in system 300, a variety of data volumes can be serviced by system 300.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example user interface 400 of an intelligence dashboard. As shown, interface 400 comprises a plurality of control objects 410-440. For example, control objects include grids (e.g. data displayed in table format), graphs, text fields, shapes, etc. that users can use to navigate through the data presented through interface 400. Interface 400 can be powered by the in-memory analytic data store described throughout this disclosure (e.g., in-memory analytic data store 112 of FIG. 6). In this regard, in some implementations, the analytic data store powers an extensive market intelligence network that provides the data shown in user interface 400. For example, computer systems implementing the techniques described herein (e.g. computer system 100 of FIG. 6) uses information about an application and/or design aspects of dashboard 400 to generate queries to the in-memory data store.

For example, all of the market intelligence data used by and displayed through the intelligence dashboard interface 400 can be loaded into the in-memory analytic data store. In this example, user interface 400 receives user input defining filter criteria 410 related to the market intelligence information a user seeks. Filter criteria 410 can include demographics data or any other type of data as shown in interface 400 or otherwise available to filter the market intelligence data stored in the in-memory analytic data store. For example, the user may be able to filter the data by gender, age, relationship status, education level, income bracket, urbanicity, etc. A query execution engine (e.g. query execution engine 270 of FIG. 7) can receive the user input defining filter criteria 410, and execute queries (e.g. queries 124 a-c of FIG. 6) to access the market intelligence data stored in an in-memory analytic data store. In some examples, the query execution engine can receive the accessed data (e.g. data from the in-memory analytic data that complies with the filter criteria 410), perform analytics on the accessed data, and output the results of the analytics to user interface 400.

As shown in FIG. 9, the user interface 400 specifies the demographic data used to generate the dashboard output broken down into various categories 420 (e.g. as shown in charts 418 a-c) and outputs ranked lists of interests 422-a-e for people that fall within the demographic profile 440 defined by the filter criteria 410. For example, the categories 420 can include what percentage of the relevant population is married, has attended college, or lives in an urban area. Other types of output and data visualization can be used. In addition, the user interface 400 can receive additional user input to refine or change the filter criteria 410 or the results sought and the user interface 400 can dynamically update in short order given the in-memory data retrieval and processing that occurs responsive to the additional user input.

By way of example, FIG. 6 shows a user interface 500 of an intelligence dashboard also powered by an analytical in-memory data store (e.g., in-memory analytic data store 112 of FIG. 6). Interface 500 displays a customer report 505 to, e.g., a sales associate in a retail store. In an example, the sales associate can view the customer report 505 on a store computer.

In some examples, graphical user interface 500 includes customer portion 520 that displays information indicative of customers who are, e.g. in a particular geographic location (say, the retail store). Customer portion 520 displays customer information 520 a-520 h, with each item of customer information 520 a-520 h representing a customer. A user can select customer information 520 a-520 h by, for example, using a mouse to click on, or using a touch screen display to touch, a desired item of customer information 520 a-520 h. When an item of customer information 520 a-520 h is selected, interface 500 displays information pertaining to the selected customer. In the interface 500 of FIG. 10, a viewer of graphical user interface 500, e.g., the sales associate, has opted to view information associated with the customer represented by customer information 520 a.

A query execution engine (e.g. query execution engine 270 of FIG. 7) can receive the user input, e.g., selection of customer information 520 a-520 h, and execute queries (e.g. queries 124 a-c of FIG. 6) to access the market intelligence data stored in an in-memory analytic data store. In some examples, the query execution engine can receive the accessed data (e.g. data from the in-memory analytic data that complies with the filter criteria 410), perform analytics on the accessed data, and output the results of the analytics to user interface 500.

As shown, interface 500 includes past purchases link 502, selection of which causes interface 500 to display information indicative of past purchases of the customer that is selected via customer portion 520. Interface 500 also includes suggested items link, selection of which causes interface 500 to display suggestions information 504 indicative of suggested items that a particular customer (e.g., the customer selected from customer portion 520) may be interested in and want to purchase. Suggestions information 504 can based on analyzing data that is retrieved from an in-memory analytic data store. For example, suggestions information 504 can be based on customers' past purchases. Interface 500 includes shopping bag link 506, selection of which causes graphical user interface 500 to display items that a particular customer wishes to purchase. Interface 500 includes profile link 508, selection of which causes interface 500 to be updated to display a customer profile of a particular customer (e.g., the customer selected via currently present customer portion 520).

Interface 500 includes top occasions portion 510 that displays information (e.g., a graph) indicative of the top occasions for which a particular customer (e.g., customer 520 a) has purchased merchandise. Information for top occasions portion 510 can be generated based on analytics performed on market intelligence data contained in an in-memory data store. In this example, top occasions portion 510 is generated by tracking past purchases of the customer and then categorizing the types of purchase (e.g., based on various occasions). In another example, top occasions portion 510 displays information indicative of the top occasions for a group of customers, e.g., rather than displaying the top occasions for a particular customer.

Interface 500 also displays top categories information 512, e.g., information specifying top categories of goods that have been purchased by a particular customer and/or by a group of customers at a retail store. Information for top categories portion 510 can be generated based on analytics performed on market intelligence data pertaining to the particular customer and/or the group of customers contained in an in-memory data store. In some implementations, interface 500 can include basket analysis portion 514—for display of information indicative of types of goods that are currently in an electronic shopping cart of a customer.

Graphical user interface 500 also includes spending history portion 516 to display information indicative of how much money a particular customer (e.g., the customer selected in portion 520) has spent with the retailer over a period of time. Information for spending history portion 516 can be generated based on analytics performed on market intelligence data pertaining to the particular customer contained in an in-memory data store. Spending history portion 516 can include a timeline 516 a, e.g., a representation of the period of time over which spending is tracked. Spending history portion 516 also includes information 516 b that specifies an average amount of money a particular customer has spent with the retailer over a period of time. Interface 500 also includes portion 518 for display of information indicative of past purchases and/or transactions of a particular customer.

FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate example topologies for applications leveraging an in-memory, distributed, analytic data store. In FIG. 11, an example topology 600 includes an Internet Protocol (IP) load balancer 610, multiple web server nodes 620, multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 630, and a data staging area 640. The IP load balancer 610 receives user requests over the Internet and balances the user requests across the web server nodes 620. The web server nodes 620 process the user requests and access data needed to serve the user requests from the multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 630. Each web server node can use the operating system RHEL 6.2, can have a 12 core Intel Xeon @ 2.24 GHz central processing unit, and can have 32 GB of RAM.

The multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 630 store data in a partitioned manner and perform parallel processing of the partitioned data. The multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 630 are clustered for load balancing and failover and serve queries/requests from the web server nodes 620. The multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 630 communicate with one another to perform synchronization of changes made to the dataset. Each in-memory analytic data store node can use the operating system RHEL 6.2, can have a 32 core Intel Xeon @ 2.24 GHz central processing unit, and can have 1 TB of RAM. The full dataset can be replicated on each server.

The data staging area 640 accesses data to be loaded into the in-memory analytic data store nodes 630. The data staging area 640 stages the data in a manner that enables parallel loading of the data into the in-memory analytic data store nodes 630.

In FIG. 12, an example topology 700 includes an IP load balancer 510, multiple web server nodes 720, multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 730, and a relational database management system (RDBMS) 740. The IP load balancer 710 receives user requests over the Internet and balances the user requests across the web server nodes 720. The web server nodes 720 process the user requests and access data needed to serve the user requests from the multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 730. Each web server node can use the operating system Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition (SP2), can have a Quad Core Intel Xeon L5520 @ 2.27 GHz central processing unit, and can have 6 GB of RAM.

The multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 730 store data in a partitioned manner and perform parallel processing of the partitioned data. The multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 730 are clustered for load balancing and failover and serve queries/requests from the web server nodes 720. The multiple in-memory analytic data store nodes 730 communicate with one another to perform synchronization of changes made to the dataset. Each in-memory analytic data store node can be a model Sun Fire X4800 M2 server, can use the operating system RHEL 6.1, can have an 80 core Intel Xeon @ 2.40 GHz with hyper threading central processing unit, and can have 1 TB of RAM. The full dataset can be replicated on each server.

The RDBMS 740 stores data to be loaded into the in-memory analytic data store nodes 730. In some implementations, the RDBMS 740 loads data into the in-memory analytic data store nodes 730 in parallel.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example data streaming architecture 900. The data streaming layer 910 works as the connector of BDE (Big Data Engine) 920 and in-memory servers 930. It maintains the interface of a Table and its serialization/deserialization over network 910 b on different machines and in different languages, and all those intermediate steps between them. In some implementations, the upper layer can just work with Table objects.

There are M data source nodes and N server nodes. After map-reduce, each BDE server 920 generates a table. Then it splits the big table into N tables according to certain partition strategy, and sends each table to its corresponding server. Therefore, each server will receive a table from each BDE server, and assemble them into a larger table that may be in a particular or proprietary format for the upper layer to use. In some implementations, each table sent from each BDE server may be very large. In these implementations, the data streaming component may split it into small sub tables and sent to the destination.

In some implementations, the servers know that each BDE server has finished table transmitting. In these implementations, there is an agreement that each BDE server has to send an empty table to each server to notify it that table data sent to a user is already done. The server can collect M empty tables from M BDE servers, then it knows the data is all transmitted.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example process 1000 for data streaming. For an online service server, there are usually two basic programming models to choose, one is a multi-threading model while the other is an event based model. The multi-threading model may be more natural for programmers, and may make a programmer focus more on the business logic itself, but may not perform well under high concurrency due to expensive context switch, lock contention, etc. Also, when there is a large amount of requests at the same time, a c10k problem may arise. The event model may not also have the c10k problem. However, the event model may not be as natural for programmers. For example, event based models tend to obfuscate the control flow of the application. Many event systems “call” a method in another module by sending an event and expect a “return” from that method via a similar event mechanism. In order to understand the application, the programmer should match these call/return pairs, even when the call/return pairs are in different parts of the code.

In some implementations, a system may include a combination of the above two modes. In these implementations, the system decomposes a business into several stages, connected with several queues. Inside each stage, there are several work threads, which take the input from the task queue, and write the result into an output queue that may be an input task queue of another stage.

In some implementations, the data streaming server performs a process using four modules, the listening module 1010, the network receiving module 1020, the decompress module 1030, and the deserialize module 1040 as is illustrated in FIG. 10.

The listening module 1010 uses one listening thread that listens on a certain port, accepts client requests, generates internal connections, and pushes into a task queue. The receiving module 1020 uses several receiving threads that are responsible for receiving binary table data from clients and checks whether the data is correct. After the receiving module 1020 receives data, it closes the connection with the client, and pushes raw table data into a task queue.

The decompress module 1030 decompresses raw table data if the raw table data is decompressed. The deserialize module 1040 uses several work threads that help deserialize the binary data into a table that may be in a particular or proprietary format, and push the deserialized data into a global queue, waiting for the upper layer to use the deserialized data.

Decomposing the process into small granular stages allows for flexibility in controlling the system and resources. For example, the thread pool of each module could make adjustments according to the situation of its task queue. In some implementations, work threads poll a task queue to determine if there is a task for the work thread. In some implementations, the system switches to the event model.

There are several types of threads inside the data streaming server. The server includes a listening thread 1050 that on a certain port, accepts connections from clients, and pushes them into task queue. In some implementations, the server includes only one listening thread 1050. The server includes a receiving thread 1060 that receives binary data from a client, and calculates the checksum to make sure the received data is correct. The server includes a decompress thread 1070 that decompresses binary data. The server includes a deserialize thread 1080 that deserializes binary data into tables that are in a particular or proprietary format.

In some implementations, the server includes a monitor thread that runs periodically to determine system CPU and memory usage. In some examples, the server includes a clean thread. The end of table occurs when the server receives an empty sub-table from a data node to indicate that the table from the data node has completed transfer. With the server performing decompression and deserialization in different stages, any previous sub-tables may or may not be already deserialized. Therefore, when the server receives and empty table, the clean thread will put this table on a watch list, and check whether all sub-tables from this data node are already deserialized. If the table is deserialized, then the clean thread pushes it into a global queue for the upper layer to use. If the table is not deserialized, then the clean thread will keep watching until it is deserialized.

In some implementations, the server includes an adaptive thread that checks the task numbers of each queue, and decides whether to start new threads or kill old idle threads. In some examples, the server includes a server loader thread that, when the server shuts down, flushes raw table data, sometimes all raw table data, in memory into disk. Therefore, this thread is responsible for loading the data when the server restarts.

The protocol may be based on TCP channel to improve the correctness of data. There are several interactions between server and clients. At the beginning, when a connection is established, a client waits for an OK command from the server. If there are already too many connections in the server, or system resources are sufficient, then the server sends a BUSY command to the client. When the client receives a BUSY command, the client will retry within a certain time period.

After the client receives an OK command from the server, the client sends a META command to the server. The META command describes some metadata information about a table to be sent, such as table ID, table sequence number, table size, or whether table is compressed or optimized for the network.

After the server receives the META command, the server checks if it can find this table in memory. If the server can find the table, it suggests that the table is somehow not finished transferring data the previous time. The server obtains the confirmed size, and sends an OFFSET command to the client, so the client can resume the last transmission in order to save time. If the server cannot find the table in memory, then the server creates a new table and sends the offset equal to zero.

After the client receives the OFFSET command, the client sends a DATA command together with real table binary data to the server. The server receives the real table binary data, and calculates checksum for this binary. If the checksum matches with the one sent by client, then the server sends an OK command to client. If the checksum does not match, then the server sends an ERROR command with a corresponding error code and requests that the client re-send.

The server utilizes several commands. Each command has a four byte header to indicate its type. Different commands may have different parameters.

The OK command includes a header “OKOK” and no parameters. The BUSY command includes a “BUSY” and no parameters. The META command includes a “META” header and the parameters table name (String), table size (int), table sequence number (int), compressed (bool), and opt4network (bool). The OFFSET command includes the header “OFFS” and the parameters offset (int). The DATA command includes the header “DATA” and the parameters table binary data (binary) and checksum (binary). The ERROR command includes the header “EROR” and the parameters error code (int).

The server includes a configuration file that may be passed as a parameter for the server to initialize its default setting. The format of the configuration file is as follows.

  {  ″http″ :  {   ″port″: 12345  },  ″thread″ :  {   ″receiverThreadNum″: 5,   ″receiverThreadMaxNum″: 10,   ″deCompressThreadNum″: 3,   ″deCompressThreadMaxNum″: 10,   ″deSerializeThreadNum″: 5,   ″deSerializeThreadMaxNum″: 8,   ″monitorThread″: true,   ″adaptiveThread″: true,   ″loadPreviousTables″: true  },  ″datasource″ : [   {    ″ID″ : ″10.197.62.100″   }  ] }

The data source section specifies the data source identification. In some implementations, the server uses IP.

The server implements an adaptive thread control. For the control strategy, if any waiting task numbers in the queue are greater than a particular number, for example, one hundred, then the process will spawn another corresponding worker thread up to the max thread number specified in the configuration file. If the waiting task numbers in the queue are less than another particular number, for example, ten, then the process kills any temp idle worker thread.

When the server shuts down, the server saves state. The server loads the state when starting. When the data streaming server shuts down, if there are still some raw tables waiting to be decompressed or deserialized, or some tables waiting to be completed, for example, waiting for a table from another data source node, the server will flush them into disk. By default, the server may save to a BIN/DataStream folder. When the server restarts, the server will spawn a loader thread to load the contents of the folder into memory.

In some implementations, the Global table queue may be used as unstructured or semi-structured data in the process described with respect to FIG. 1. In these implementations, the Global table queue may be integrated with structured data and results to queries may include a combination of structured data and unstructured or semi-structured data. In this regard, the streaming data may be treated in a similar manner to a search index and the streaming data (e.g., data from a social media source) may be accounted for and integrated with structured data in query results.

The features described can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or in combinations of them. The apparatus can be implemented in a computer program product tangibly embodied in an information carrier, e.g., in a machine-readable storage device, for execution by a programmable processor; and method steps can be performed by a programmable processor executing a program of instructions to perform functions of the described implementations by operating on input data and generating output. The described features can be implemented advantageously in one or more computer programs that are executable on a programmable system including at least one programmable processor coupled to receive data and instructions from, and to transmit data and instructions to, a data storage system, at least one input device, and at least one output device. A computer program is a set of instructions that can be used, directly or indirectly, in a computer to perform a certain activity or bring about a certain result. A computer program can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment.

Suitable processors for the execution of a program of instructions include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and the sole processor or one of multiple processors of any kind of computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. The elements of a computer are a processor for executing instructions and one or more memories for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to communicate with, one or more mass storage devices for storing data files; such devices include magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and optical disks. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, such as EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits).

To provide for interaction with a user, the features can be implemented on a computer having a display device such as a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device such as a mouse or a trackball by which the user can provide input to the computer.

The features can be implemented in a computer system that includes a back-end component, such as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, such as an application server or an Internet server, or that includes a front-end component, such as a client computer having a graphical user interface or an Internet browser, or any combination of them. The components of the system can be connected by any form or medium of digital data communication such as a communication network. Examples of communication networks include, e.g., a LAN, a WAN, and the computers and networks forming the Internet.

The computer system can include clients and servers. A client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a network, such as the described one. The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client-server relationship to each other.

A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the disclosure. 

1. (canceled)
 2. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a natural language query submitted by a user; identifying, based on the natural language query, one or more attributes or metrics from a structured data dataset corresponding to the natural language query; in response to receiving the natural language query, obtaining, from the structured data dataset, values for the identified one or more attributes or metrics; and providing, for display on a user interface: an indication of the identified attributes or metrics from the structured data dataset; and a graphical representation based on the obtained values for the one or more attributes or metrics.
 3. The method of claim 2, comprising: based on the natural language query, generating a filter to apply to the values for the identified one or more attributes or metrics; and applying the filter to the obtained values for the identified one or more attributes or metrics, wherein the graphical representation is based on the filtered values for the one or more attributes or metrics.
 4. The method of claim 2, comprising: generating one or more terms of the natural language query by tokenizing the natural language query; and assigning a meaning or interpretation to each of the one or more terms, wherein identifying the one or more attributes or metrics is based further on the meaning or interpretation assigned to each of the one or more terms.
 5. The method of claim 2, comprising: identifying one or more keywords included in the one or more attributes or metrics or the natural language query; and providing, for display on the user interface, graphical elements identifying the one or more keywords.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein: the graphical elements are configured to be dragged to one or more locations on the graphical representation, and each of the one or more locations causes a different type of processing to occur on the values that correspond to the respective keyword of the respective graphical element.
 7. The method of claim 2, comprising: based on the one or more attributes or metrics, selecting a type of visualization for the obtained values for the one or more attributes or metrics, wherein the graphical representation includes the selected type of visualization.
 8. The method of claim 2, comprising: based on the one or more attributes or metrics, selecting a first attribute or metric for presentation in rows of the graphical representation and a second attribute or metric for presentation in columns of the graphical representation.
 9. A system comprising: one or more computers; and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising: receiving a natural language query submitted by a user; identifying, based on the natural language query, one or more attributes or metrics from a structured data dataset corresponding to the natural language query; in response to receiving the natural language query, obtaining, from the structured data dataset, values for the identified one or more attributes or metrics; and providing, for display on a user interface: an indication of the identified attributes or metrics from the structured data dataset; and a graphical representation based on the obtained values for the one or more attributes or metrics.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations comprise: based on the natural language query, generating a filter to apply to the values for the identified one or more attributes or metrics; and applying the filter to the obtained values for the identified one or more attributes or metrics, wherein the graphical representation is based on the filtered values for the one or more attributes or metrics.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations comprise: generating one or more terms of the natural language query by tokenizing the natural language query; and assigning a meaning or interpretation to each of the one or more terms, wherein identifying the one or more attributes or metrics is based further on the meaning or interpretation assigned to each of the one or more terms.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations comprise: identifying one or more keywords included in the one or more attributes or metrics or the natural language query; and providing, for display on the user interface, graphical elements identifying the one or more keywords.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein: the graphical elements are configured to be dragged to one or more locations on the graphical representation, and each of the one or more locations causes a different type of processing to occur on the values that correspond to the respective keyword of the respective graphical element.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations comprise: based on the one or more attributes or metrics, selecting a type of visualization for the obtained values for the one or more attributes or metrics, wherein the graphical representation includes the selected type of visualization.
 15. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations comprise: based on the one or more attributes or metrics, selecting a first attribute or metric for presentation in rows of the graphical representation and a second attribute or metric for presentation in columns of the graphical representation.
 16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising: receiving a natural language query submitted by a user; identifying, based on the natural language query, one or more attributes or metrics from a structured data dataset corresponding to the natural language query; in response to receiving the natural language query, obtaining, from the structured data dataset, values for the identified one or more attributes or metrics; and providing, for display on a user interface: an indication of the identified attributes or metrics from the structured data dataset; and a graphical representation based on the obtained values for the one or more attributes or metrics.
 17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the operations comprise: based on the natural language query, generating a filter to apply to the values for the identified one or more attributes or metrics; and applying the filter to the obtained values for the identified one or more attributes or metrics, wherein the graphical representation is based on the filtered values for the one or more attributes or metrics.
 18. The medium of claim 16, wherein the operations comprise: generating one or more terms of the natural language query by tokenizing the natural language query; and assigning a meaning or interpretation to each of the one or more terms, wherein identifying the one or more attributes or metrics is based further on the meaning or interpretation assigned to each of the one or more terms.
 19. The medium of claim 16, wherein the operations comprise: identifying one or more keywords included in the one or more attributes or metrics or the natural language query; and providing, for display on the user interface, graphical elements identifying the one or more keywords.
 20. The medium of claim 16, wherein the operations comprise: based on the one or more attributes or metrics, selecting a type of visualization for the obtained values for the one or more attributes or metrics, wherein the graphical representation includes the selected type of visualization.
 21. The method of claim 16, wherein the operations comprise: based on the one or more attributes or metrics, selecting a first attribute or metric for presentation in rows of the graphical representation and a second attribute or metric for presentation in columns of the graphical representation. 